citrus in mead

[tooomanycolors]

What is the best way to add citrus to a mead? Should I cut up and rack on top like in JOAM, or use the rind? Im looking to goto secondary this weekend with the citrus addition and all help will be greatly appreciated.:fro:

 

[BigKahuna]

Just Me, But I'm gonna zest about 6 limes for my next mead. It will be a 3 gallon batch, and I'll add that to the secondary. This one will get back sweetened quite a bit, as I'm not interested in UBER pucker power.

 

[Tusch]

I know Malkore recommended zesting the oranges and steeping it like tea in some of the must for a while to instill the flavor. He did this on top of squeezing the oranges into the must as well.

 

[tooomanycolors]

hmmm the mead im planning on adding the grapefruit to a mead with 18.25%ABV, would adding the entire fruit like with joam work?

 

[malkore]

the biggest reason I went for zest and fresh juice vs whole oranges is all the comments I saw about JOAM being 'pithy' at times. it sounds like it ages out, but having used orange and lemon zest in cooking, I can tell you they pack a LOT of punch for the quantity, especially the aroma. and aroma is about 50% of your flavor sensation.

plus, zest isn't fermentable, so if you needed to boost it at secondary, you can add more zest and rack on top. just clean the orange exterior really well first. might not be a bad idea to go organic to avoid sprayed pesticides. one orange is a LOT of zest.